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John Scott-Railton Profile picture
@jsrailton
Sep 22, 2023 • 10 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
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🚨UPDATE your @Apple products now!

We @citizenlab w/TAG's @maddiestone caught #predator spyware attacks against a prominent pro-democracy Egyptian politician after he announced presidential ambitions.

Apple rushed a patch.

It gets crazier 1/

citizenlab.ca/2023/09/predat…
Between May and September 2023, former Egyptian MP Ahmed Eltantawy was targeted with Cytrox’s Predator spyware via links sent on SMS and WhatsApp. The targeting took place after Eltantawy publicly stated his plans to run for President in the 2024 Egyptian elections. In August and September 2023, Eltantawy’s Vodafone Egypt mobile connection was persistently selected for targeting via network injection; when Eltantawy visited certain websites not using HTTPS, a device installed at the border of Vodafone Egypt’s network automatically redirected him to a malicious website to infect his phone wi...
2/ Ahmed Eltantawy got in touch with us @citizenlab, worried his devices were targeted in #Egypt.

He was right. His iPhone on @VodafoneEgypt was targeted for network injection.

As he browsed the net, the attackers were trying to slip a #Predator infection onto his device.

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3/ It gets worse.

We attribute the spyware injection system to a @Sandvine Packet Logic product w/high confidence.

Sandvine has been accused in past of facilitating human rights abuses in the past.

Owned by NSO Group's former owner Francisco Partners.




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4/ This kind of exploit delivery through injection DOES NOT require a target to click as our collaborator, the brilliant @maddiestone, points out in her post.

It's a seriously dangerous kind of attack & hard to protect against.
blog.google/threat-analysi…
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@maddiestone 5/ Apple moved quickly to fix the zero-day exploits @maddiestone & @billmarczak discovered.

We encourage everyone to immeidately update their apple products.

There is a piece of good security news buried in all this... Image
@maddiestone @billmarczak 6/ We believe & Apple's Security Engineering & Architecture Team confirms, Lockdown Mode would have blocked this attack!

We *strongly* encourage all Apple users that may be at risk because of who they are or what they do to enable Lockdown Mode!

support.apple.com/en-us/HT212650
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@maddiestone @billmarczak 7/ Ahmed ElTantawy wasn't just targeted with network injection!

He was also targeted with #Predator spyware links in decoy messages sent as texts & over @WhatsApp.

One of the attacks masqueraded as communications from the International Federation for Human Rights @fidh_en Image
@maddiestone @billmarczak @WhatsApp @fidh_en 8/ This summer the 🇺🇸US hit developer & distributor of #Predator spyware (Cytrox & Intellexa) with blacklisting.

This latest abuse revelation affirms the determination that the spyware continues to fuel human rights abuses.

By @ddimolfetta & @Post_AG
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
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9/ Pulling back the lens from the tech side of this #Predator attack:

Mercenary spyware is autocrat fuel.

When you hack a pro-democracy presidential hopeful in an autocracy... you are doing dictatorship.

And spyware companies know exactly who they are selling to. Image
10/ Without brave victims like Ahmed Tantawy getting checked & coming forwards, these recent exploits would not have been found.

Billions of apple devices would still be vulnerable.

Including yours. Image

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More from @jsrailton

John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Mar 19
NEW: French sailor reveals position of aircraft carrier with his fitness app.

Run tracking app @Strava shows Charles de Gaulle as it steams across the Med.

#stravaleaks strike..again!

Story by @lemonde. 1/ Image
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2/ The massive OPSEC threat posted by fitness apps isn't just well known. It keeps happening.

I first wrote about it in...2018!

Hostile forces can use #Fitleaking for intel gathering, planning attacks...even targeting missile strikes.

Receipts: web.archive.org/web/2022081919…Image
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3/ Poor Arthur. But this is an institutional signal that, ~8 years in, militaries are still allowing enough location-aware devices in that it's a big threat.

Incidentally, the @lemondefr team has now been on the #stravaleaks issue for 3 years! I

It just keeps happening.

By @AsiaBalluff @seb_bourdon @liselottemas @antoineschirer
lemonde.fr/international/…Image
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Read 7 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Mar 11
UPDATE: @Plaid for AI happened faster than I warned.

We are in a historic transformation around AI agents.

Disruption will extend to the core of your privacy.

Companies know the appeal of agentic AI & are working to lock consumers into ecosystems designed to maximize data extraction.

It's not too late, but it might be soon.

But the thing about transformative moments is that new possibilities often open simultaneously with the risks.

We need to build, experiment with & use good private + open AI tools, local models that respect privacy by default & confidential inference that prevents companies from mining the data they process.

Do that & give us a fighting chance for future that respects our freedom, and our boundaries.

Sleep on the challenge of building openly & we relinquish the playing field to the same companies and dynamics that already degrade our autonomy...only faster & everywhere.Image
2/ What's the deal with @Plaid?

I find people are dimly aware about something involving connecting banking accounts.

I bet you don't know that Plaid helps themselves to mountains of your financial data in exchange for the convenience.Image
3/ Basically, by providing 'rails' @Plaid has managed to get an absolutely gods-eye-view on peoples financial behavior.

In real time.

That data is available to other companies. And governments.

You are the product.Image
Read 5 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Mar 10
BREAKING: powerful iPhone hacking tools used by Chinese criminals originated from US defense giant L3 Harris.

The $LHX zero-click exploits went to Russian spies too.

Unbelievable harm to our collective security.

Scoop by @lorenzofb, here's why this matters 1/Image
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2/ Last week, the team @google blew open a massive hacking operation: #Coruna.

A Chinese hacking operation somehow had a huge catalogue of very, very good iPhone exploits stealing banking information from people all over the web.

Hard to overstate how bizarre this was...Image
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3/ Thing is, the powerful #Coruna exploits didn't originate with Chinese cybercriminals.

Some months before they were used by #Russian government hackers.

But before that? Well, as @Google Threat Intel described it, it was being used by a customer of a surveillance company...

Report cloud.google.com/blog/topics/th…Image
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Read 16 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Feb 27
YIKES: @perplexity_ai is flexing that they have OS-level access to 100M+ Samsung S26s.

Zero mention of:

Privacy
Security
Encryption

What will Perplexity do with this growing stash of personal data from deep inside Samsung phones? What jurisdictions will it live in? Who will it get shared with?

Here's the thing: Android's current security & privacy model involves sandboxing 3rd party apps from each other. TikTok can't read your private notes, for example.

Sandboxing is good & it narrows the attack surface against your private stuff.

But this #Perplexity integration breaks that baseline sandbox model, making a kernel-adjacent data bridge for Perplexity into your personal stuff.

Will users understand the structural shift in privacy?

Meanwhile, the risk of prompt injection & other attacks against an agentic AI that has OS-level access to personal stuff is also real.

Lots of speed, no signs of caution.Image
2/ Multiple agents & flows each with their own distinct security & privacy issues and levels of OS-level access to private stuff.

I doubt users have the cognitive spare room to parse privacy & security downsides each time they want to ask a question.
3/ Unprecedented access means @perplexity_ai is taking unprecedented security measures.

And has thought hard about user consent & protecting their privacy...right?

Right? Image
Read 4 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Feb 24
BREAKING: US just sanctioned a network of exploit brokers trafficking in stolen US hacking tools

First-ever use of #PIPA (Protecting American Intellectual Property Act) by @USTreasury.

Here's the wild backstory of how @opzero_en got US-taxpayer funded exploits. 1/ Image
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2/ Peter Williams was an exec at Trenchant, subsidiary of @L3HarrisTech / $LHX.

Trenchant makes hacking tools for 🇺🇸US & allies.

Williams sold them to @opzero_en & bought nice things.

Result? Powerful 🇺🇸 capabilities got into hostile hands.
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@L3HarrisTech @opzero_en 3/ Operation Zero is a zero-day broker. They pay bounties for exploits in tech (much of it 🇺🇸US-made).

Then resell to non-NATO governments & intel agencies.

They aren't secretive. They even advertise here on X. Image
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Read 11 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Feb 18
BREAKING: It started with WhatsApp messages.

They said they were students & tried to build rapport with Angolan journalist Teixeira Cândido.

Then the links began arriving.

Someone was trying to hack him with #Predator spyware.

New bombshell investigation by @AmnestyTech 1/Image
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2/ Heard of Pegasus? #Predator is a somewhat sloppier cousin.

They don't always have the hottest zero-click exploits, but they market to the same dictators.

And once you are infected, the harm is just as real: your digital life is turned inside-out.Image
3/ Predator spyware, which is distributed by #Intellexa, has a massive abuse problem.

And this latest excellent investigation by @AmnestyTech just drives home how much chaos the company has caused...
Read 11 tweets

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